Do not steal!

Since I was a teenager, I have made it a habit to swim every day for a while. It is something I enjoy and that relaxes me. Often, when I change and hang up my clothes, I notice that the hangers are different. Today, I was listening to the person in charge of cleaning and organizing the locker room comment to another user that they had to put more hangers because they kept disappearing. They don’t break; someone simply takes them!

Reflection on Everyday Theft

My son is an emergency nurse at one of the country’s public hospitals. A few days after starting work, without having a locker to store his belongings, he realized his toiletry bag was missing, where he carried, among other things, his stethoscope!

I remember years ago commenting to the manager of a fast-food restaurant that in the same brand’s locations in other countries, there were high chairs for babies. His response was: "Here too, until I got tired of chasing after customers who took them!"

I don't know why, in these and many other everyday details, we have become a very lax society, where many people have convinced themselves that this is not stealing.

The Reality of Theft

But the definition of stealing is: unlawfully taking something that belongs to someone else.

Despite this definition, it seems easy to internally convince oneself that these actions, which generally have no consequences, are also of no importance. On the contrary, it is as if taking advantage of the situation were a sign of cleverness.

This is how we stop seeing the principles that govern the foundation of human coexistence, such as "Do not steal," and instead think that this is simply a matter of moving things around.

DO NOT STEAL.
Exodus 20:15